Calvin wouldn't have envied Berkwood that element of his position, so he couldn't fault his answer. Still, it seemed odd. The whole thing was odd. Berkwood on a committee for voting reform in the first place, when he was still young by most people's standards and had never expressed any overt opinion in politics. The committee itself working in near secrecy until they had suddenly produced a bill. The bill passing, and the whole thing just — dissolved? It was like this had happened in a dream; the logic seemed to follow from one point to the next well enough, but it was devoid of any real-world context. When they all woke up they would discover none of this had really happened at all.

Cal was going to wait and see whether women actually were able to register for the vote before he counted any of his chickens. The paper might say that was the new law, and they might say it would be easy, but that didn't mean it would be true. In theory there was nothing preventing a woman from having an occupation, either, and yet most of his coworkers at the Ministry or at the hospital before were men. It would take a bout of willful ignorance to suppose that was because all the rest of the women simply hadn't wanted to earn money.

"And the Minister?" he asked, pushing his plate towards the edge of the table slightly so that he had enough room to rest his fingers on the edge. "You talked to him. Did you get the sense that he's done? With reform?"

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